This is very
magical. A big THANK YOU to the DELEGS software team from Germany, for all
you are doing for SignWriting users around the world, and thank you also
to Steve Slevinski, for providing us the foundation software of
SignPuddle, the SignWriting Image Server, and other software developments.
I feel so blessed to know that our SignPuddle Online is being used in this
way, to help the DELEGS software build upon our SignWriting online
community - Stefan showed me the details of DELEGS yesterday on Skype, and
I want to thank you for providing an ASL version of DELEGS now, which
accesses the SignPuddle ASL Dictionary online. I look forward to
explaining to our ASL users how to use DELEGS, as soon as I
can.

As you know,
Steve is developing a new version of SignPuddle … SignPuddle 2.0. I
assume that the transition should be smooth, but you may want to contact
Steve to discuss any issues - SignPuddle 2.0 is an improvement, mainly for
improved searching…not only for spoken language searching, but improved
searching by SignWriting symbols, and searching by SignWriting symbol
frequency, which is important for linguistic research. All SignText
documents and SignMaker dictionary entries will be able to be searched by
Symbol Frequency in SignPuddle 2.0, and the results of listed signs will
be quite fast.

Now, Lasse, it
is a pleasure to meet you! You have made us all so happy and excited about
your SignWriting App project. Thank you for taking this big task on your
shoulders…. Is your thesis the equivalent to what we call a Masters Degree
(MA) or a dissertation for a Ph.D? I realize our school systems are
different, but I think you know what I mean - no matter what, when the
degree is complete, I will be happy to inform our SignWriting web site
visitors about your new thesis, and new SW
app.

Thank you for
attaching screen captures, below, that show us how the app looks - It
looks wonderful!!

The fact that
it will work in one direction with SignPuddle as well as DELEGS is a real
gift. You mention that maybe one day it could work for SignPuddle in both
directions…Please feel free to contact me and Steve any time, to see what
needs to be done to make that possible. Maybe we can help… I know Steve
has been planning to develop for Apple devices at some point in the future
…maybe this will speed up the
process…

The day you
announce that the SignWriting app is available in the Apple Store, I will
buy iPad3 and be in
heaven!

We would love
to give you feedback. Can you join the SignWriting List and make your
announcements for testing to the List? That will be a big help to all of
us:

First of all I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Lasse
Schneiderand I’m a software developer in the German delegs project,
where we develop a web application for writing and managing
bilingual SignWriting documents. I hope you’ve already heard about us. If
not you’ll find more information onwww.delegs.de

I’m also a student of computer science at the university of
Hamburg, and I’m currently working on my thesis. The topic of my thesis is
a sign editor for the iPad. It’s a tool to create new signs in SignWriting
and edit existing ones. So basically for the same purpose as the sign
maker, which you know from SignPuddle. The app takes advantage of the
modern way to interact on a touch device to improve its usability. It uses
the backend of the delegs-Editor, so signs created and edited with the
iPad app can be used in the delegs-Editor. Delegs procures its signs from
SignPuddle. Therefore the iPad app is also connected to SignPuddle in one
direction, as you can use signs of SignPuddle in the app. The other
direction is not supported yet. Meaning new signs or editing to signs
you’ve done in the app will not appear in SignPuddle (Hopefully one day
they will).

The app is still being developed at the moment. So
unfortunately it is not available at the Apple App Store yet. I’ve
attached a few screenshots of the app, so you can get a first impression.
I’ll let you know when the app is available in the App Store, so you’ll be
able to download it and try it out. Until then I’m open to questions and
all kind of feedback.J

Regarding a
SignWriting app for the iPad… Yesterday for the first time,
I

heard that a
German programmer has developed or is developing a
SignWriting

app for the
iPad… Stefan Woehrmann told me about it in a Skype
conversation.

I am excited
to learn more about it myself
…

Do let us
know if you hear any more about
this!

I will -
Stefan - can you tell us more about the iPad app for SignWriting which was
demonstrated to you recently? Perhaps you can ask the programmer or
developer to get in touch with us? We are so
curious…smile...

Regarding
SignWriting Shorthand, it is not handwriting, but a little
like

Pitman or
Gregg Shorthand in English - and was used in the 1980's to
take

notes for
Deaf signers in the classroom, writing the signing of
the

interpreter at speed. And it worked for the
students who took notes with
the

Shorthand.
However, SignWriting has changed since and the Shorthand needs
to

be updated
to match the way we write today and we have not done that
yet…

I hadn't
realized SignWriting had evolved so much — but that's a goodthing!
That means it's improving as folks use it, right?
:)

Exactly!

SignWriting
has vastly improved since 1974, and since the 1980's and so forth…every
decade has brought important improvements that evolved naturally through
usage - that is the important point - It is a flexible writing system that
is alive and well
-

Have you seen
this new web site on the SignWriting Script? someone just showed it to me
the other day - I was so happy to see
it:

I ask about
shorthand and cursive because I'm concerned that printSignWriting is
too cumbersome to use for writing notes in class. Iwanted to see
examples of people's personal shortcuts they've taken tomake
SignWriting look less like a bunch of diagrams and more like,well,
writing. ;) But I am interested in forms of SignWriting that
arecomplete enough to not need immediate re-transcription, the way
trueshorthands
do.

Smile - first,
no worries…SignWriting is flourishing written by hand as well as by
computer. Some people write painstakingly beautifully by hand, the way
people wrote English beautifully by hand back in the 1800s…and other
people write fast and can read each other's writing just fine - but that
is not shorthand - it is handwritten notes - shorthand is a different way
of writing based on shortcuts and phonetic pieces of words like a court
recorder, who gets training with special machines - so let's call it
cursive or handwriting, but not shorthand
-

It is true
that we could use some "formal" textbooks teaching handwriting skills, but
that will come in time
-

Do you
have any samples of letters, or notes, or what-have-you, thatare good
examples of quickly-written but
still-legible(-to-the-author)SignWriting?

Sure - anyone
want to show Arthaey some of their handwritten notes?
smile

If you are
thinking of texting on iPhones or iPads with SignWriting,
I

believe
there will be a day when SignWriting texting will occur - and
that

just might
become the new "Shorthand" - who
knows?!!

In order
for SignWriting to be supported for texting, it would have tobe
supported directly by Apple — which seems unlikely to happen.
Butit *would* be possible to create an iPhone app that was dedicated
toSignWriting, which wouldn't need any official recognition by
Appleapart from normal approval in the app
store.

That would be
great and would mean a big shift in people's awareness of
SignWriting..

So Arthaey -
tell us - are you interested in developing a SignWriting
app

for the
iPhone?

I am a
programmer by trade, but I haven't done any iOS programmingbefore.
Although I *am* interested in making an iPhone app, I wouldnot do
justice to a SignWriting app until I've learned both ASL
andSignWriting better first.
:)

That's true,
but your interest and technical support will be welcome
-

On the
other hand, I do have a lot of professional web developmentexperience
and would consider making a smartphone-friendly version ofthe
SignPuddle website. (The site does work on my iPhone's webbrowser, but
it could definitely be a smoother, easier experience.)Would you be
interested in
that?

As you know,
SignPuddle is designed and developed by Steve Slevinski, who is right now
finishing up the development of a new version of SignPuddle…SignPuddle 2.
We hope to be using SignPuddle 2 online in the next month or
so…

Once
SignPuddle 2 is working well, the next item on Steve's To-Do List is to
work on this very issue - there are new web browsers out there now that do
not all work the same and SignPuddle needs to become cross-platform with
all the latest web browsers including Safari, Google Chrome and
RockMelt -

So you need to
ask Steve if you could be of help - If you could work together and it
speeds up the process of course it would be a blessing for everyone - We
are a non-profit and we do not have any funds to help you with this task -
so I do not want to impose on
you...